Zuo Lin'an saw the doll from a distance and recognized it at first glance.
This was the 【Death Doll】.
He had seen a post on the forum before that specifically introduced this talent.
This was a special player talent called 【Substitute Puppet】.
A player could craft a 【Death Doll】. Once used, they could transfer all the Death Locks on their body to the doll.
The specter would kill the Death Doll, treating it as the player. However, if the player triggered a rule again, they would still draw the specter's attack.
The cooldown of this talent was ten days!
Moreover, when a player entered a dungeon, the cooldown would refresh once.
If they cleared the dungeon, it would refresh once more.
Because of this, players with the 【Substitute Puppet】 talent loved carrying newcomers through One-Star dungeons just to farm dolls.
Everyone's eyes lit up when they saw this doll, a flash of greed passing through them, but they quickly realized that this thing was useless here!
Instantly, they lost any desire to snatch it.
Specter items in a dungeon could not be casually stolen. While specter items found in the current dungeon could be gifted or sold to one another, once a specter item was taken out of the dungeon, it was a different story.
Specter items taken out of a dungeon would directly bind to the player. Others could neither steal nor use them.
However, the 【Death Doll】 was a creation of a player's talent, so it was an exception.
Thus, many martial arts masters, various secret organizations, rogue wanderers, and the like loved to steal or snatch 【Death Dolls】.
Lin Deyou put the doll back away.
“This is the preparation I made. But as you can see now, the specter in this dungeon doesn't even need us to trigger any rules.”
“In other words, we don't have any Death Locks on us.”
“I've never heard of such a situation happening in all these years... Now, even I don't know what to do, which is why I wanted us to discuss it together.”
Princess Jinyang frowned and lowered her head slightly.
In fact, she also had a 【Death Doll】 in her possession. Or rather, anyone with high status and power had the channels and enough gold and silver to purchase these dolls.
As a princess, she even had two of them!
And one of her imperial brothers, who was also a player, had as many as five of them!
Every time she thought about this, she couldn't help but feel envious and jealous.
But unfortunately...
Just as Lin Deyou said, this doll worth over a thousand taels of silver was useless here. Let alone two, even twenty of them would be the same.
They all knew the situation Lin Deyou spoke of, but at the end of the day, they didn't have any good solutions either.
For a moment, everyone fell into silence once again.
Seeing that no one answered him, Lin Deyou didn't say anything more. In any case, under the current circumstances, whatever he said was useless.
Time gradually ticked away in this deathly silence. Seeing that another hour was about to pass, they finally began to discuss with a hint of fear.
“What should we do?”
“Judging by the time, that specter is about to appear again. Who knows who will be taken away this time.”
They knew that once they were taken away, death was certain.
Nobody wanted to die.
Everyone looked grim, but they were truly powerless. Even if they did have a way, they would only use it to protect themselves. How could they possibly share it now?
Let alone Princess Jinyang and the young master of the Lin Duke's Manor being here—even if the Emperor himself were present, they would make the same choice.
After a brief discussion, they still failed to come up with any way to deal with the specter.
Meanwhile, Zuo Lin'an was already preparing to make his move.
“It's almost three in the morning...”
Zuo Lin'an turned to look toward where the players were. He could go kill the fourth player now.
Taking a step forward, his figure instantly vanished on the spot. Only, as he neared the mountaintop, he couldn't help but glance at the tallest tree.
This mountain was the highest mountain within the dungeon's boundaries.
And the tree closest to where the players had lit their campfire was the tallest tree on this mountain. Hanging from its highest branch was a single leaf.
If anyone could get this leaf, they would obtain the dungeon's specter item and gain the chance to avoid his attacks twice. But unfortunately, these people...
Hmm?
Wait, that's not right!
What did he set as the special effect of this specter item again?
【Withered Leaf: Consumable specter item, passively triggered. Carried on one's person, it can block one death execution by a specter and 100% avoid the specter's next attack. Number of uses: two!】
Originally, the number of uses was only once. Because the application wasn't approved, he had added one more. Looking back now, he probably only needed to shorten the survival time of the main quest instead.
But unfortunately, the number of uses could only be increased, not decreased.
He hadn't felt anything was wrong before, but looking at it now, he seemed to have dug a huge hole for himself!
Carrying it on one's person could passively block one death execution by a specter and 100% avoid the specter's next attack. On the surface, this didn't seem to have any issues.
If Zuo Lin'an encountered this situation, he would only need to attack someone else first, and then come back to kill them later.
But now, there was a slight problem with this setup.
Lin Deyou had eaten a specter item candy, so Zuo Lin'an could only leave him for last. This meant Lin Deyou was guaranteed to survive until the very end.
What if he also managed to get this leaf at the same time?
By then, Lin Deyou would be the only player left in the entire dungeon.
With only one player left, and with that player using the special effect of the Withered Leaf, he, as the specter, wouldn't be able to find another player to attack, meaning he wouldn't be able to launch a second attack on Lin Deyou.
Then... wouldn't he be completely done for?
Thinking of this, Zuo Lin'an couldn't help but twitch his lips.
He hadn't thought that far ahead at all before.
Fortunately, every time he applied to open a dungeon, things like the novice benefits, main quest, and the special effects of the specter items could be changed.
“Before opening the dungeon next time, I must modify the effect of the specter item.”
Only keep the effect of blocking a specter's death execution, remove the latter part, and then increase the number of uses to three. This way, it would achieve a sort of balance.
Fortunately.
Fortunately, it was currently nighttime, so they hadn't noticed the leaf. On top of that, the players were so unnerved by the fact that he could kill without them triggering any rules that they hadn't even thought about searching for a specter item.
Zuo Lin'an planned to drive this group of people away from the mountaintop. As long as they weren't here, he could cut off any chance of them obtaining the specter item.
Yes, that's what he would do.
Having decided on his strategy, Zuo Lin'an immediately set to work.
Just then, Princess Jinyang suddenly shivered and rubbed her arms with both hands.
“It's so cold... Third Young Master Lin, the specter is coming!”
Everyone stood up.
They could all feel the chilling cold. Even the originally bright campfire flickered unsteadily, looking as though it might go out at any moment.
This time, the specter came with ill intent!
Rate on N.U.
